


Fracture

by whatamidoingeven



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-09
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-08 01:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1126938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatamidoingeven/pseuds/whatamidoingeven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weiss Schnee isn't good enough. It's not something she forgets, but that doesn't stop her from being reminded of it every step of the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fracture

The first time Weiss Schnee appears in a tabloid publication with her family, she is fresh out of the hospital. The journalist in charge of the article notes that she isn’t quite as precious as the prior Schnee newborns have been.

_You aren’t enough. You are destined to never be enough._

The first time she had travels with her father to see the family business, at the age of five, she takes a keen interest in a bottle of spark Dust. She proceeds to lose her grip on it and causes a minor thunderstorm while her father discusses business with prominent Dust mine owners. She isn’t punished for the accident, but she spends the rest of the trip memorizing the exact colors of the hallway walls and the acoustics of far-off footsteps.

_This is a mistake. You know it’s a mistake, and, well, you are too._

There is an incident, when Weiss is seven years old, where she attempts to style her own hair. This is a task set for her personal caretakers, but the young girl is ambitious. She has seen the process many times, and she knows this is something she can do. This is a challenge she can conquer.

The end result is a mess- an off center ponytail that is as sloppy as it is lopsided. When her caretakers enter her room moments after she completes her attempt, they immediately break into laughter.

“Oh sweet, clueless child! You tried doing that yourself? Well, I-“ one of the women, lost to a fit of chuckles, rasps out. “-I’m impressed! Looks  _good,_ girl. Maybe we should style it that way all the time!”

The two women renew their rapturous laughter, and the only sentence Weiss can make out of it is “ _it would be a great_   _reminder!”_

And so it is.

_You’re worthless. Do you really need a reminder?_

The first and only time Weiss tries to escape the Schnee compound, she is engulfed by forest- swallowed by coniferous pines and darkness. She is ten years old now, and she is about to age beyond those digits. She had taken with her minimal preparations- there was no ideal way to approach the house staff regarding rations for such a trip, and she had no experience packing for herself. Fortunately she at least had the foresight to obtain an arm from the stock in the lower levels of the family mansion. The Schnee family housed weapons for bodyguards and other, more questionable characters, and thought them well hidden. They had not anticipated the cunning of their child in finding and obtaining one of the most dangerous of their weapons- a dust loaded rapier.

It did not take long for any stillness the forest promised to be discarded. Aura was a rare find amongst these trunks, and a hungry Grimm would not dismiss such a golden hunting opportunity.

Weiss is greeted by a growling, foaming creature only a few hundred feet into the forest, and she is at first paralyzed. By fear, by shock- by excitement, by danger. She is forced into awareness as the Beowolf swipes at her, but she is quick to move. She readies Myrtenaster, and with no form or approach, tries to counter. The monster easily side-steps the strike, and retaliates with a swift head-butt straight into the fragile child’s chest. The impact sends Weiss flying, and the momentum causes her to slam into the ground repeatedly before her slide slowly stops.

She is dizzy and in tremendous pain, burning. Her head throbs as though the beast were repeatedly striking her skull. She strains, cracks her eyes open and is greeted by the sight of Schnee guards dismantling the lone Grimm. It’s the last thing she’ll remember of the night. She closes her eyes and is sent out of consciousness, surrounded by curtains of red.

She awakes the next morning in the sterile air of the Schnee family infirmary. Her head is pounding, and she registers that she can only open one eye. When she questions one of the nurses about it, the woman informs Weiss that she had sustained a nasty gash above her left eyebrow. She lets the girl know she will see again, but it will scar. The nurse does not mention the incident that led to the bandages and subsequent pain. No one does.

The next time she sees her parents, they do not embrace her. They do not yell, lecture, or scald. They merely inform her that, since she has taken such an interest in violence, they have decided to enroll her in Vale’s highest quality combat school. She is to become a Huntress.

It’s not an entirely negative development, Weiss decides. She doesn’t dare mention that she notices their response to her trying to leave is to send her further away.

_Why bother training? You’ll still be nothing. You will always be nothing._

When Weiss prepares for her last Misteal Regional Tournament, she does so with one opponent in mind. She’s studied Pyrrha Nikos for the last three years, and all of her training for the tournament has come with Pyrrha in mind. She knows her weaknesses, her flaws. She knows when they tend to show in battle and how to exploit them. She has become a scholar on all things Pyrrha Nikos; she understands how her background influences her fighting style, how her strikes reflect her Aura level. She knows Pyrrha better than Pyrrha herself. After two years of being the girl’s runner-up, and one year left to prove herself, Weiss is ready to win.

It takes her by surprise when she is knocked out of the tournament in the semi-final round, by an opponent whose name she hadn’t bothered to learn.

_There will always be someone better than you. You will never win._

She arrives at Beacon Academy poised for the best. Perfection is the only option she is willing to accept. No cracks in her façade- she is surrounded by the highest quality students, the warriors deemed the best. She is going to lead them all- in academics, in combat, in technique, in potential. She is going to grace the academy with her presence. She is going to be remembered.

When Ruby Rose is announced leader of their squad of four, she is speechless.

_Always someone else. You don’t even belong here. You’re pathetic._

She fights it, in the most diplomatic way possible. The Schnee family does not buy stock in under par suppliers, and she’ll be damned if she places her trust in a child’s hands. She fights it, but soon realizes it’s not feasible. There is no reaction to her plight- Beacon moves on, the instructors taking no notice of what is so obviously an injustice.

She tries to spur them to action. Professor Port greets her not with laughter, but with words. He doesn’t openly judge or scorn. This is new for Weiss. It’s a contrast to the laughter she heard years ago after her first attempt at initiative.

It gives her pause. Reflection. It’s not something she is familiar with. It’s not that she didn’t have time to look inward during her upbringing. In contrast, she had far too much time to do so. She didn’t dare to look inwards, because doing so would lead to madness, to regrets- to hopelessness.

To do so would lead to being surrounded by her failures. She would drown in them.

But she reflects now, not on herself or her past but on her brief stay at Beacon. And she remembers words that will stay clearly etched in her memory:

“ _I just want to show you that I can do this.”_

It is after this period of reflection that Weiss Schnee makes a decision.

She will trust Ruby Rose. She will allow another person to guide her, to lead her.

To befriend her.

She meets with Ruby that night, and lets her know that she has her support as a leader. It’s a transcendental moment for Weiss because for once in her life, after a struggle and an obvious sign of weakness, she hears

_nothing._


End file.
